332 ziphiidjE. 



rostrata of Chemnitz, and the Hyperoodon rostratum of Wesmael, 

 because in the former, according to the figure, the dorsal fin is more 

 in the middle of the back than in the latter ; but I now feel convinced 

 that this must have originated from an error of the artist. At the 

 same time there are such differences in the descriptions of the animal 

 given by various authors, that I think it not unlikely that there may 

 be more than one species, but I have not been able to find any spe- 

 cimen to establish the fact. 



Mr. W. Thompson has given, in the Ann. <fe Mag. Nat. Hist. 1846, 

 xvii. 150. t. 4. f. 1, the following description of a recently caught 

 specimen (he calls it H. Butzhopf) : — 



"Blackish lead hue, merely a lighter shade beneath, and not 

 white. Teeth, two on each side, in front loosely covered by the 

 gums ; the front pair smaller ; blowers slightly crescentic, pointed 

 directly towards the head, and the eyes on the same vertical plane ; 

 eyes round ; a riiale : " and the following measurements — 



ft. in. 



Length, entire, straight 20 4 



Length, entire, over curve 23 4 



Length of nose 11 



Length of gape 1 7 



Length to eye 3 1 



Length to pectoral fins 5 11 



Length of pectoral fins 2 2 



Length to dorsal fin 10 9 



Length of dorsal at base 1 7 



Girth, greatest 11 6 



Width of pectorals 7 



"Width of caudal 5 6 



Length of dorsal 1 



The entire skeleton is preserved in the Belfast Museum. 



The skeleton in Mus. Eoy. Institution, Liverpool, has the skull 

 60 inches long, 18 inches from top of crest to palate ; the inter- 

 maxillaries are convex, and distinctly to be seen to the front of the 

 blowers ; orbital crest erect, scarcely as high as the process at the 

 back of the blowers ; the nuchal vertebrae anchylosed, the first three 

 into one mass, with a long conical lateral process ; the dorsal process 

 of the two hinder separate. 



Heterodon Dalei (Lesson) is not from Dale's description of this 

 whale, but from BlainvUle's account of Delphinorhynchus micropterus. 



Laeep^de placed this species as the type of his Hyperoodon, and 

 refers Delphinus bidentatus to DelpMrms ! 



Dr. Jacob, in his description of Oetodiodon Hunteri (Dublin Phil. 

 Joum. 1825), which was stranded at Killiney, near Dublin, Sept. 

 1824, observes that there are no teeth in the palate. He believes 

 that the three skulls in Dublin, viz. of the skeleton in Mus. CoU. 

 Surg. Dublin, a skuU in Mus. Boyal Dublin Society, and a skull in 

 the Museum of the School of Anatomy, Peter's Street, Dublin, belong 

 tp one species, similar to that figured by Cuvier (Oss. Foss.) : they 



